Do you actually know that the reason it failed is that TrueImage doesn't recognize old tib archives? I once had this problem and resolved it the same as you. Now I am getting this error message using the latest version. I don't think this is a version problem. It seems to be an extremely serious problem that strikes at the heart of the value of True Image. If it cannot reliably recognize its archives, customers will have to start looking elsewhere.

52fitz said:

Today I needed TrueImage for real. I lost my entire active partition (my own fault).

Initially, I had the nightmare of TrueImage not recognising its own archive (.tib) files.

However, the reason I am posting is to say that the problem was that I was trying to restore using the version of TrueImage on my original CD.

The archive disc image had been made with a later build of TrueImage, which I had downloaded and installed when that updated build was released.

Using another computer, I downloaded the latest version of TrueImage 9 and burned it to CD. When I installed and ran that version on the affected computer, it recognised the .tib files just fine.

I'm posting this in case anyone out there gets stuck the same way I did.

I reinstalled TrueImage 9, Build 3666, deleted my archive (non-Secure Zone), and created a new archive in its place. When I check its integrity, I get the error message that this is not a t.i.b. file. Since checking the backed up file is only an option, the operative assumption is that rarely will an archive be corrupt on creation. It begins to appear that the quality of this product has fallen beneath the bare minimum. One can admire the technical ingenuity, but as a practical matter, a backup product is useless if you cannot rely on the archives it creates. Is there no error-checking whatsoever going on while the archive is being created?

I would like to confirm that the new version of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home can read the images created by any previous versions of the software. However, you cannot use the previous version in order to restore the image created with the newer version.

Could you please clarify whether you get the error message within Windows or when you verify the image integrity using the bootable rescue media?

Please tell us where your image is saved to. If you create the image to the external hard drive, please try to save it to the internal one.

Please also try to verify images created from under Windows using Acronis True Image 9.0 Bootable rescue CD and vice versa.

I think Acronis needs to make users more aware of the fact that old versions cannot read more recent archives. In my case an older build that could not read the archive was activated concurrently with the latestbuild. I believe the old build was 2337; I know it ended in 7. And the build that actually showed in the About box was 2667; each of the builds activated was partly expressed in the about box. Kind of strange, imo. In this hybrid, I guess the trait of reading new Acronis archives was recessive, as I was unable to verify or restore archives using it.

But the uninstaller did not remove the earlier version. For some reason it was installed in a different folder, not by any choice I made though.

In fact I think I have got round this by using the recovery media I made from the latest version of the software. I had thought I could use the brand new CD out of the box but this was clearly not as new as the downloaded version.

I say 'I think I have got around this' because nothing much seemed to happen to start with - but yes! It is working! Maybe tommorrow, when its finally done, I'll be able to report a full success!

However - it is important for folks to know that each and evrytime you upgrade Acronis True Image to the latest build its essential, if you only have the one machine, to make the recovery media CD to go with it.

I have also discovered that downloading and running the up-dates does not change the build number - my version, out of the box two days ago was 2302. I downloaded and ran the update but the build version didn't change. So I un-installed the original - installed the new download and now have build 3666! Now I need to follow my own rule and make a new recovery CD and write 3666 on it!

And finally, today, Friday morning, I find that the recovery has been fully successful - just needed to up-date the usuals - e.g. virus defs - and oddly reset the monitor to 100hz refresh as this had slipped back to default. Everything else perfectly as wiped by two formats and a dalliance with a clean install of Vista.